7
NOVEMBER JOE :
' WOODSMAN DETECTIVE
THE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR ROBBERY
THE SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION
BY HESKETH PRI CHARD M-m 5? . fi
WANT THE WHOLE affair kept
unofficial and secret," said Harris, the
Bank Manager.
November Joe nodded. He was
seated on the extreme edge of a chair
.in the Manager's private office, look
ing curiously out ot place m that
prim, richly furnished room.
"The truth is," continued Harris, "we bankers can
not afford to have our customers' minds unsettled.
There arc, as you know, Joe, numbers of small de
positors, especially in the rural districts, who would
be scared out of their seven senses if they knew that
this infernal Cecil James Atterson had made off with
one hundred thousand dollars. They'd never tmst
us again."
"A hundred thousand dollars is a wonderful lot of
money," agreed Joe.
"Our reserve is over twenty millions two hundred
times a hundred thousand," replied Harris grandilo
quently. Joe smiled in his pensive manner. That so? Then
I guess the Bank won't be hurt if Atterson escapes,"
said he.
"I shall be bitterly disappointed if you permit him
to do so," returned Harris. "But here, let's get
down to business."
On the previous night, Harris, the Manager of the
Quebec Branch of the Grand Banks of Canada, had
rung mo up to borrow November Joe, who was at
the time building a log camp for me on one of my
properties. I sent Joe a telegram,
with the result that within five hours
he had walked the twenty miles into
Quebec and was now with me at the
bank ready to hear Harris's account
of the robbery.
The Manager cleared his throat
and began with a question.
"Have you ever seen Atterson ?"
"No."
"T THOUGHT you might have. He
always spends his vacations in the
woods fishing, usually. The last
two years he has fished in Bed River.
This is what happened: On Satur
day I told him to go down to the
strong room to fetch up a fresh hatch
of dollar and five-dollar bills, as we
were short. It happened that in the
same safe there were a number of
bearer securities. Atterson soon
brought me the notes T had sent him
for with the keys. That was about
noon on Saturday. We closed at one
o'clock. Yesterday, Monday, Atter
son did not turn up. At first I
thought nothing of it, but when it
came to afternoon, and he had neither
come nor sent any reason for his ab
sence, I began to smell a rat. I went
down to the strong room and found
that over one hundred thousand dol
lars in notes and bearer securities
were missing.
I communicated at once with the police and
they started in to make inquiries. I must tell
you that Atterson lived in a boarding house be
hind the Front'ennc. No one had seen him on Sun
day, but on Saturday night a fellow boarder called
Collings, reports Atterson as going up to his room
about 10:30. This Collings was the last person who
saw him. Atterson spoke to him and said he was off
to spend Sunday on the south shore. From that mo
ment, Atterson has vanished."
"Didn't the police find ont anything further?" in
quired Joe.
"Well, we could n't trace him at any of the railway
stations."
"I s'poso they wired to every other police station
within a hundred miles 7"
"They did, and that is what brought you into it."
"Why?"
"The constable at Roberville replied that a man
answering to the description of Atterson was seen by
a farmer wnlking along the Stoneham road nnd head
ing north on Sunday morning, early."
"No more facts?"
"No."
"Then, let 's get back to the robbery. Why are yon
so plum sure Atterson done it?"
"The notes and securities were there on Saturday
morning."
"How do you know?"
"It 's my business to know. I saw them mvself."
"Huh! . . .
. , i
ivnu no one eisu
went down to the
strong room?"
"Only Atter
son." "Who keeps the
key?"
"I do. It was
never out of my
possession.
November was
silent for a few
moments.
6 -fercfe jl. Lowell.
"Himouski. Sunday, 0:30 a. m."
"It looks like Atterson 's the thief," remarked Joe.
"1 've always been sure of it!" cried Harris.
"I wasn't," said Joe.
"Are you sure of it now?"
"I'm inclined that way, because Atterson had that
letter posted by a confederate. He was seen hero in
town on Saturday nt 10:,'t() and ho couldn't have
posted no letter in Himouski in time for the 0:30
n. m. on Sunday unless ho M gone there on the 7
o'clock express on Saturday evening. "Yes, Atter
son 's tho thief, all right. And if that really was him
they saw Stoneliani ways, he 'h had time to get thirty
mile of bush between us and him, and he can go right
on till he's in Labrador. 1 doubt you'll seo your
hundred thousand dollars again, Mr. Harris."
"Hah! You can trail him easily
enough ?"
Joe shook his head. "If you was to put
mo on his tracks, I could," said he; "but
up there in tho Laurcntidcs he'll suro
pinch a rnnoo and make along a water,
way."
"Il'in!" coughed Harris. "Mv Direct
ors won't want to pay you two dollars a
day for nothing."
"Two dollars a day?" said Joo in his
gentle voice, "I should n't a' thought that
one hundred times ono thousand dollars
could stand a strain like that!"
T laughed. "Look here, November, I
think I 'd like to make this bargain for
you.
"Yes, sure," said the young woods
man.
"Then I '11 sell your services to Har
ris hero for fivo dollars a day if you
fail; and twenty per cent of tho sum
you recover if you succeed," I
went on.
Joo looked at me with wide eyes;
but he said nothing. "Well, Harris,
is it on or off?" I asked.
"Oh, on, I suppose, confound you!"
said Harris.
November looked at both of us with
a broad smile.
'TWENTY
trooper i
"We bankers can not afford to have our cuitomer mlndi uniettled"
"How long has Atterson been with the Bank?"
"Two years, odd. There was never anything
against him before."
At this point a clerk knocked at the door, and en
tering brought in some letters. Harris stiffened as
lie noticed the writing on one of them. Ho cuf, it
open and when the clerk was gone out, he read aloud
the following note from Atterson :
"I hereby resign my splendid and lucrative posi
tion in the Grand Banks of Canada. It is a dog's
dirty life ; any way, it is so for a man of spirit. You
can give the week's pay that's owing to me to buy
milk and buns for the next meeting of Directors."
"What's the postmark?" asked Joe.
hours later, Joo, a police
roopcr named lloDson, and l were
deep in the woods. We had hardly paused
to interview the farmer at Roberville, and
then had passed on down the old deserted
roads until at last wo entered the forest,
or as it is locally called, the "bush."
"Where aro you heading for?" Hobson
asked Joe.
"Red River, because if it was really At
terson tho farmer saw, 1 guess he '11 have
gone up there."
"Why do you think that?"
"Red River's tho ovcrllow of Snow Lake
nnd several trappers have canoes on Snow
Lake. There's none of them trappers
there now in July, so he can steal a ennoe easy. Be
sides, a mnn who fen rs pursuit always likes to get
into a country ho knows, nnd you heard Mr. Harris
say how Atterson had fished Red River two vaca
tions. Besides . . ." hero Joo stopped nnd
pointed to the ground . . . "them's Atterson's
tracks. Leastways, it 's a black fox to a lynx pelt
they nro his."
"But you 've never seen him. What reason have
you . . ." demanded Hobson.
"When first wo come on them about four hours
back, while you was lightin' your pipe," replied Joe,
"they come out of the bush and when we come near
Cartier's place they went back into the bush again.